"My Lady! Your husband has arrived upon hearing the news of your son's wedding…" "So he choses right now to come of all times… please tell him that I do not wish to see him and tell him to just go back home! He has never cared about our children at all and there is no need to show up at all! My son… my poor son and my lost daughter…my god, what on earth do I do?" "Wife? What happened? Why do you look like that?" "My sister's nephew's wife has finally urned him against us and is going to take back my family business from our grasp!" "What? What are you…you were supposed to milk that boy for everything he is still worth since your clan's decline, which had also affected mine, and here he is taking away anything that remains in his father's name! And why didn't you call me about our children's marriages! They will join The Royal Family for goodness sake!" "Seo Yeon called you out as being henpecked and useless in your absence! She also sad that your clan has amounted to nothing, so they are taking back my dowry! Se said that we were not even making full use of our shops and…" "Oh did she now? She wasn't even born when my family took ver this business that your father handed down to us, so why would she even say such things? Is this the true face of Seo Geom's daughter? A spiteful and spoiled little brat who doesn't know how to d anything apart from advocate for women's rights? What an insidious woman she is indeed! We need to be rid of her…is there anyone that she is close with within this yangban?" "I will soon find that out before she has the chance to turn her back on us for good. We still need my sister's nephew's connections in the palace for this wedding to go smoothly for our own children's sake before we cut them off, but it now looks like they have cut us to the chase. And you may as well stay the night since I can imagine that the golden couple are working on moving out of here as we speak."
"Aren't you curious as to why I showed up here after all of this time wife?" "I can only imagine that you are going to tell me why you are here, regardless if I ask you about it or not." "The Princess summoned me to discuss my son's future in the palace after spending hours interrogating me about every minor detail that I could conjure up about him." "My goodness, what did she say about him?" "She complains about his lack of courtship towards her and asks about his diet. I told her that he barely eats after nighttime, but she only listens to what she wants to! She is every bit as stubborn and arrogant as they say, it is no wonder that our son is actively running a mile away from her! She expressly forbids him from haven any female servants and…" "Husband…about that…" "…and we must train him 'to not be to formal towards her', whatever the hell that means." "Good Lord, it looks like I shall have to loose my 2 children to these kids of monsters in the palace." "Lifting the tray to eyebrow level and treating each other as special guests are things that make a married couple last for sure, but getting him to not treat her like an outsider will not be an easy job at all." "He just has to look considerate and carful of her, and talk to her a little instead of bottling himself up like he always does." "So what do we do about his cousins concubine that he just assaulted! There were witnesses, so we have no choice but to place him with her in the palace! And he will not marry The Princess without her!" "We cannot defend her even if we wanted to; just give the boy what he wants and the concubine is on her own from there, unless she can produce him a child I suppose." "That isn't stopping her from asking everyone else about his past relationships, she is even having her men follow him and watch his every move outside of this yangban." "Her parents reportedly have quite a sweet reputation, so it looks like she has some unrealistic expectations set for this marriage of hers, and god only knows how we will be punished if the outcome is different. This is why we must retain our relationships with The Lord Nam as much as possible." "She clearly wants a relationship just like The Lord Nam's, so we have to keep them close together in the palace at least." "I shall instruct the kitchens to send him a late night snack even if he refuses it, I have to start mending this relationship myself." "Why not offer him another woman instead?" "He has had about 10 different women of fine breeding approach him and he rejects them all; he only has eyes for the lowborn girl." "Then we must get someone else to do it for us."
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"Husband! What on earth happened to you! Why are you so bruised after spending one night in the palace!" "I gave The Emperor an idea that he wasn't completely happy with and I got a beating for it, but he listened to me in the end." "The fact that The Emperor has still kept you around in the palace and finally acknowledged you after a year shows that he never had any intentions on letting you go, unlike what he did with your father. He probably just wants to control you, because he sees the same potential in you that I do." "That is most likely true wife." "Did you expose The Senior Scholar for the soup? Isn't that why you asked me to pack it for you?" "The Emperor demands proof." "If it is proof he wants, it is what he will get. We both know he is lashing out an our family because I have snubbed them by not visiting them after 2 weeks now." "I need him out of the department that he has taken over years ago and is collecting ministers like jewels, just like my father did." "The Emperor has no proof of The Senior Scholar's corruption, but he must be suspicious enough to keep you by his side. The Senior Scholar has an important role in the palace, but he still cannot be compared to my father in any capacity at all, that is why he must be so desperate to meet me." "Do you have a plan in mind?" "Yes I do husband, but it will have to wait until your cousins get married off." "What do you have in mind?" "For an old man like that who has kept his power over his position for decades? We need to provoke them into making mistakes, and big ones at that." "I have tried to place spies in his home but he is a tough one to crack, so that is out of the question." "We need to maximise your scandal in the palace and badmouth The Third Prince when we can, and if I am right, the people around The Senior Scholar will report back to him and put him in a tight spot with him…" "But because of my cousin's individual marriages with The Royal Family, nobody can touch me at the moment." "It is the only chance we have, so we must take full advantage of it." "The Third Prince was quite close to The Princess before his exile, how can this be such a coincidence?" "What if we expose my cousins's relationship with my concubine? It would certainly rid me of her." "Give her the minimum dowry as some form of compensation to show good will on your behalf." "I am a Seo now, and if I want to lure out The Third Prince, then I might as well use The Nam Clan as bait." "What about your nephew? Is he coming with us?" "He will be my spy here for me, I shall get him a job in the palace to cover his own funds." "It looks like i will have to visit their family and show myself in public a lot more now that we are about to formally separate from your family clan." 'Do not even think about it wife, I do not want you leaving the home unnecessarily in your condition." "What else did you do in the palace? Did you meet with The Princess?" "She summoned me before I had the chance to go home directly." "And what did you do exactly?" "I may have used my servants to snoop around in this yangban and brought with me some evidence of my cousin's affair with me in the palace." "And when you were beaten?" "I managed to hide it just in time." "What was it?" "A pair of dolls with their characters on them." "Really? My goodness, he will certainly not have a peasant marriage, that is for sure." "She will probably call me in again to discuss this." "Make the wedding happen as soon as possible so that we can free ourselves from them no matter what it costs us. We need to be free of them physically first before we plan for anything else to happen."
"You are right and I do not owe that woman anything anymore, but how can I stop Hui=Jae from following us into our new home?" "You must make her think that leaving her here to heal your family is the best way for her to regain your favour somehow, maybe announce it in public so that she will not dare to refute it." "Yiu want me to humiliate and enrage her even further? Is that wise wife?" "She will never stop coming after you otherwise. You are not one to make public announcements, but I am quite different don't you think so? Based on my past? I also need to see if she and The Senior Scholar are connected or not, I have my hunches but I need proof." "What are you doing wife?" "I am holding onto you because I missed you all night long, I could barely get any sleep….and I am apologising to you." "Apologising to me for what?" "For getting jealous and angry at you when other women approached you. It must have made you so uncomfortable, especially without your male concubines to support you." "I made you a promise that I would leave that life behind me as soon as you got pregnant, and that is exactly what I am doing, and willingly at that as well. Just do not get frustrated at me wife, even I am sick of myself and my own ambition at this point." "I haven't seen you smile once since you parted ways from Chul, I can still hear him screaming for you when you had to leave." "That child is full of potential and…do not look at me that way wife, I just said it out of habit. He is also Hwi's son and yet he reminds me so much of myself when I finally let my guard down around Hwi." "It is rather funny to imagine that my brother's firstborn son ends up taking after you in almost every single aspect apart from his face, maybe you both really do have the fate of the moon and the sun after all." "And you are the stars around me wife, do not forget that." "Do you hear that husband? I am pretty sure that woman is playing the zither to attract your attention, maybe she has something to tell you?" "Do not go anywhere, I need to catch up on my sleep and we still need to finalise our plans." "Shall I make up an excuse on your behalf in the palace?" "Yes please, and I will start taking you out myself, for this home isn't ours and it is not our birdcage of memories to isolate ourselves in when we wish to." "I cannot wait husband, shall I make you some food?" "I want your honey kratom cakes." "So you knew that I was trying to sober you up all along?" "And when exactly did you find out about my addiction?" "When I forced myself to distance us but I kept sending you those cakes a few times a week to help you." "So that means that you were expecting my brothel visits after all? That is why you were no surprised in the least and you were even receptive of…" "Let us just say that I didn't know how much I missed you until I needed you, in more ways than one."